Sarah Coventry from House of Francheska

Designer Sarah Coventry

SARA COVENTRY
The Sarah Coventry Story

It starts in 1852, when Charles W. Stuart arrived in Newark, New York, a small village on the Erie Canal between Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y. He purchased a small farm on the edge of the village and started selling the young fruit trees door to door. This resulted in the establishment of the C.W. Stuart Nursery.

Stuart established several other nursery firms to compete with each other, but used the same facilities. The names were Emmons Nursery, William C. Moore, Quaker Hill, and others. Newark was tagged as a nursery city as it was also the home of the Jackson & Perkins Co. soon to be known as the "World's Largest Rose growers." "C.W." Stuart died in 1923, but his son Charles H. "C.H." who had graduated from Cornell University had taken over years before, and had other interests, along with nursery products. A trained chemist, C.H. began experimenting with extracts and eventually marketed his extracts and tube flavorings, using a new term "direct selling".

A new office building was constructed in downtown Newark, and was called the Commercial Building, home to several direct selling companies under the C.H. Stuart umbrella. Sold were cosmetics, household goods, silverware, china, all directly to customer via commissioned sales people. The depression had a reverse effect; as people out of work would sign on to sell goods door to door, with little investment needed. Lyman K. Stuart, son of C.H., was in the business by the 1920's having also graduated from Cornell. In 1949, it was decided to market costume jewelry using a plan that had worked with china and silverware. It was the beginning of the party plan. The new company was named after Lyman K. Stuart's new granddaughter, Sarah Coventry Beale.

These names were not pulled out of a hat. The names Emmons was after C.W. Stuart's wife Caroline Emmons. That name was switched from nursery to jewelry and became a sister company to Sarah Coventry. The name Coventry was after Dr. John Coventry, Newark's last horse and buggy doctor, and grandfather of L.K. Stuart. Information supplied and given with kind permission from John – Rochester NY. Thank you John.

More Information added today 3 July 2008
House of Francheska received this wonderful email from Dean who knew Sarah Coventry. Thank you Dean
I was just diverting all over the web this morning and ended up on your site via a 'Sarah Coventry' link.Found it interesting to find the products in Europe! Good company bio, by the way. You see, I'm from Newark. Sarah was in my graduating class (but graduated from some finishing school).One of my best friends was Mike Wood whose dad, Rex, was the co. Pres. for many years. (Mike and mom lived a few doors down/divorced dad lived street behind in the old Perkins (Jackson&Perkins Roses) mansion.) I think in the '70's S-C built a huge complex just S of Newark in a valley my best friends dad used to lease as an addition to their farm. This valley began about 200 meters from our house. I thought you might find it interesting to know that when S-C moved,Kodak leased the building and it is there that they make their batteries. Sarah Coventry batteries, sort of! (I'm supposing you have them there). Sorry to barge in; thought you might find this a curious bit of trivia! All the best Dean USA